Department Stores
How the 19th century revolutionised British shopping
When William Whiteley boasted that his London department store sold “everything from a pin to an elephant”, a clergyman decided to put him to the test. The elephant was duly delivered – compliments of William Whiteley – to the front garden of the clergyman’s rectory. It was the end of the 19th century, an era of confidence, commerce and modernity. More leisure time and dramatically improved transport networks allowed retail to flourish. And no type of shop was better placed to service this new culture of commerce than the department store.
Many modern-day department stores have become cultural institutions, but these household names have far humbler origins, in a time when shopping was very different from today.
Shopping has existed for as long as people have needed to buy and sell goods, but it wasn’t until the Georgian era that high-street retailing came to the fore. The 18th century saw the emergence of retail markets, and shopping quickly became a fashionable activity among the well-heeled. High-class shops began to crowd the main thoroughfares in larger towns and cities – enjoying the footfall of wealthy clientele, who would browse for high-end goods from jewellers, tailors, milliners and furniture-makers.
Bazaar Behaviour
From the middle of the 19th century, the bazaar would bring together a variety of goods under one roof, with separate areas for ladies and gentlemen to ensure discretion. Rather than negotiate the cost, each item would be marked with its price and customers could also ask for a refund. An 1877 advertisement found in the British Library very clearly states that “Anything not Approved [Will Be] Taken Back and Money Returned”, and the popularity of bazaars grew thanks to their greater choice and more agreeable terms of sale.
Property rates were high in commercial districts, and the
up-and-coming shop owner wishing to expand his business would convert the shop storage and accommodation areas into selling spaces, rather than acquire adjacent property – creating the opportunity for individual departments. In 1870, Debenham and Freebody had 27, including furs, dresses, parasols and household drapery. Staff, work rooms and offices would be rehoused in cheaper properties in nearby side streets.
Humble Origins
The department store
John Lewis began life as a draper’s.
The first John
Lewis shop in
Oxford Street stocked 50 shades of black silk to meet the needs of mourners. John
Lewis was one of an original cohort of drapers who lent their name to department stores, along with William Whiteley (1867), Arthur Liberty (1875) and in Scotland Charles Jenner (Jenners, 1838), while both Harrods and Fortnum and Mason started out as grocery shops.
These growing businesses also presented new jobs for the working classes, although their experience was vastly different from the customer’s. Workers were not allowed to go out, and could be fined for misdemeanours such as gossiping and idleness. Whiteley employed his assistants for six days a week, from 7am until 11pm. They had to stand all day, and were forced to live at the store. Contemporary newspapers give a stark account of their plight, with the Kilburn Times in May 1880 reporting that: “A London shop girl has drowned herself, the act being attributed to excessive pains in the head, from which she had suffered ever since she took her first situation, and which she attributed to standing for so many hours in the shop.” The Pall Mall Gazette took up the cause in December 1887, declaring: “What we contend is that life behind the counter is in the nature of things so fatiguing and, in some ways, so injurious to health that it is the bounden duty of all employers of female labour to provide every reasonable comfort consistent with the real business interests of the establishment.” The writer goes on to suggest some “reasonable comforts” such as “many more seats, and much greater liberty in using them… and one free afternoon in the week”. Although the 1899 Seats for Shop Assistants Act prompted inventions for temporary seating, there was no enforcement and consequently no improvement in working conditions.
Bon Beginning
Brixton’s Bon Marché was England’s first purpose-built department store. Opened in 1877, it was also the first steelframed building in the country. The magazine The Builder described it in 1877 as a “large and handsome new market building… estimated to have cost at least £70,000 exclusive of land”. It was revolutionary in its vision to “form a novelty in market accommodation in the metropolis, embracing the sale of almost every imaginable article of food, furniture and dress, under one management, the whole of the employees residing near the premises in a large block”. Bon Marché ushered in a golden age for the department store, and by the late 19th and early 20th centuries they were emblematic of metropolitan modernity.
By 1905, the iconic Harrods
had become Europe’s biggest department store, boasting 3,000 staff and an annual turnover of £2 million. From its humble beginnings, Harrods had become a cultural institution – a place of elegance and splendour. But from 1909, it had a rival – Selfridges.
Harry Gordon Selfridge quickly made his mark on Oxford Street with a magnificent baroque department store bearing his name. It offered 100 departments, along with restaurants, reading and writing rooms, refreshment areas, a rooftop garden, and staff who had been trained in selling and demonstration. No longer was the department store just a place for shopping. It had become a destination for society ladies, and patronised by royals. A 1904 Harrods catalogue showcases the range of services offered: “buy or sell stocks and shares… rent a safe deposit… book a stall for the theatre… and store your furs, tapestries, etc”. Harrods, in particular, made much of its royal patronage, including Princess Elizabeth, who in 1939 at the age of 13 visited the pet department with her sister Princess Margaret. The young princesses “showed much interest in all things displayed, while Princess Elizabeth selected collars and a bed for her own Corgi dog”.
A Consumer’s Paradise
The increase in middle-class leisure time heralded a new era of consumerism. Department stores began to recognise the importance of shopping as an experience, and the addition of refreshment rooms made a day trip to town accessible for middle- and upperclass ladies, who could take advantage of improved transport networks. Shops had previously favoured counter service, but now a different kind of shopping was encouraged – browsing. However, this also made shoplifting easier. One account in the Globe from 1909 tells of “Lizzie Bright, of Clapham Common, who was charged with the theft of an umbrella worth 12s… It was Proved that she had been convicted before of Paltry thefts by way of shoplifting, and was even now under recognisances. Mr Mead sentenced her to three months’ hard labour.”
At the beginning of the 20th century, savvy store owners turned their attentions to the display. Goods would be shown in lifelike room settings with mannequins and graphics, helping the customer to visualise the products in their own homes. Buildings were designed with the shopping experience in mind with vast, cathedral-like interiors, expanses of floor space and plate glass – all housed within iron, and then steel frames. Inside, up-to-date technology, such as lifts and escalators, was deployed to ensure a continuous flow of customers.
Department stores weren’t only built in big cities. Provincial stores, although never on the scale of those in London, benefited from cheaper rates and less rigid building regulations. William McIlroy (1903) was dubbed ‘Reading’s Crystal Palace’ for its continuous glass-wall structure.
‘From its humble beginnings, Harrods had become a cultural institution – a place of elegance and splendour’
Independent retailers continued to thrive during the First World War, but struggled against the larger department stores in the challenging years that followed. Between the wars, more people enjoyed a better standard of living and department stores endeavoured to cater for a broader social spectrum. Hire purchase, which allowed customers with limited funds to purchase high-value items by paying in instalments, brought a wide selection of goods to new audiences and led stores to expand their range of household appliances, furniture and carpets.
Consolidation
After the Second World War the biggest department store group was Debenhams, although House of Fraser began to catch up in the 1950s. The regional chains of independent retailers that had previously enjoyed growth, such as Lewis’s of Liverpool which had stores in several northern cities, began to be swallowed up by national chains. Shops such as John Lewis and Debenhams became familiar landmarks of the town and city centre, around which other shops congregated.
‘Independent retailers struggled after the First World War’
This commanding presence in the urban landscape wasn’t set to last, however. The arrival of the internet and changes in the way that we shop have had a profound impact on these “cathedrals of commerce”, to borrow the phrase of French novelist Émile Zola. In its heyday, the department store was more than just a shop; it was a place where you could have tea on the roof or see a fashion show. A visit fired the imagination.